In the past, science has discovered that some animals possess vision capable of detecting light both in the visible spectrum (˜400 to ˜700 nanometers wavelength) and the near ultraviolet (˜200 to ˜400 nanometers wavelength). The evolutionary advantages afforded by this ability are varied. Many fruits, flowers, and seeds are more prominent when viewed in ultraviolet light as compared with normal visible wavelengths. Insects use ultraviolet emissions from stars and the moon to aid in flight navigation. The blood and urine of some animals is easily detected using ultraviolet light.
Various fabric dyes have been found to “glow” when viewed with ultraviolet light and are undesirable in hunting applications. Clothing treated with such dyes, including clothing that appears camouflaged when viewed in visible light, has been found to be unsuitable for hunters. Hunters wearing such clothing appears as a bright, moving beacon to game animals. Calling attention to oneself in such a manner often frightens game animals causing them to flee from the hunter.
Common household laundry detergents have often included ultraviolet brighteners designed to give clothes a whiter appearance upon washing. While a whiter appearance can be considered a positive selling point for the average consumer, for the hunter seeking to blend into the forest, using such products only compounds the problem of camouflage. An entire industry has developed to produce fabric dyes and detergents that are themselves not visible in ultraviolet light or mute ultraviolet signatures in existing products.
While all the aforementioned prior art seeks to avoid detection by animals capable of seeing ultraviolet light, there is little in the prior art directed towards using an animal's ability to see ultraviolet light as an attractant.
Published Patent Application 2007/0199228 to Johnson (formerly U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/711,409) describes a decoy with a surface reflection that closely matches the spectral reflectance of the animal it is designed to mimic, including both human-visible and ultraviolet wavelengths in order to make the decoy appear more realistic to the target animals.
However, this reference is limited in scope insofar as it only teaches the use of ultraviolet reflectance for lifelike mimicry. The prior art publication is silent about the use of ultraviolet reflectance in combination with other attractant methods or the use of ultraviolet brighteners to render an object “super bright” as an animal attractant.
Thus, the need exists for solutions to the above problems with the prior art.